Fort Smith CVB director discusses hotel trends, availability
by January 29, 2025 1:24 pm 334 views
![](https://talkbusiness.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/fsm-Courtyardmarriot-732x383.jpg)
Courtyard by Marriott in downtown Fort Smith
Hotels can be seen as a measure of a city’s prosperity. Along east Phoenix Avenue, for example, the construction of numerous hotels suggests business and tourism travel growth – in short, economic optimism. Overall, the city has more than 2,000 hotel rooms available.
Elsewhere in town, by contrast, the closure of more historical lodgings might indicate the opposite.
Ashleigh Bachert, executive director of the Fort Smith Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the new hotels and the closed hotels depict a nuanced landscape.
“Fort Smith is on the cusp,” said Bachert.
The numbers to back up this assertion are found in documents published by STR, the global leader in independent hospitality-data benchmarking. Like any good tourism professional, Bachert uses these numbers – based on tax reporting required by law – as one barometer to measure Fort Smith economic activity.
The most recent STR document, dated from January 2022 through December 2024, does indicate that perhaps a half-dozen Fort Smith properties have closed.
“In recent years we actually decreased by 1,000 rooms,” Bachert said.
The closures include everything from local motels past their prime – Garden Lodge, Holiday Motel – to chains unable to compete with their more successful rivals. The unique economic disruptions of the last half-decade undoubtedly played a role.
At the same time, the STR report indicates that within the last decade, Fort Smith has added nearly 400 new rooms to help balance previous losses. Bachert points to the most recent addition, Element by Marriott, as evidence of the industry’s future.
“New builds can be more specialized,” she said, referring to Element’s business-oriented, long-stay, studio approach.
With two other locations flagged for similar construction, Bachert expects the trend to continue.
Another STR detail, less visible from the street, is that properties refurbish existing rooms and wings to remain competitive.
“We’ve seen more renovations of property,” said Bachert. “We may not have an increase, but we are keeping them fresh. This is important for those housing corporate clients. It makes a good impression.”
The temporary lack of availability also shows up in the STR totals.
“We have about 2,100 rooms available on any given day,” said Bachert. “Our occupancy for 2024 was right at 60 percent. We’ve stayed in that 60-70 percent annual range. That’s a good place to be.”
Who is using these rooms? Hospitality professionals use the phrase “Monday to Thursday problem” to describe the fact that certain groups of travelers typically book rooms during different times of the week. Corporate clients usually need lodging only during the week, thus “Monday to Thursday.”
While less prominent, according to Bachert, hotel use related to tourism is also increasing.
“Visitation is going up. We are seeing an uptick. More people are traveling for sports, or events such as the Peacemaker Festival. As we continue to get the word out about what people can do, we are seeing more response. … The fact is, we’ve got our corporate market and visitor market increasing at the same time. We’re not sacrificing one for the other.”
The CVB uses its “Discover Fort Smith” marketing mantra to market the city to the outside world.
“The joke is that nobody in the local community should see the work that we do,” said Bachert. “Our work is aimed outside the community. We want people to come here from outside here. But we do want our work to reflect who we are.”